Salmon Faverolles for True Dual Purpose? Anyone Use them for Meat?

[RememberTheWay]

Salmon Faverolles are listed as a dual purpose breed and when first created were a very popular meat bird in France. Now a days, especially hatchery lines, are little more than glorified egg layer with no real meat to them at all. I am wanting to know if anyone has actually bred their line back to a true dual purpose breed? Is anyone harvesting them for meat? (Even if it's a color other then salmon) what is the meat like? Ratio of white to dark meat? I personally have a line from a private breeder that had been working with them for many years and used her line for meat. At least the extra cockerels. I would like to further refine what she started (I want faster growth rate, earlier processing ages, and more fleshing on them earlier then what I am seeing with my own birds from her). I personally would like to apply everything that Mandelynn Royale has done with her line of American Bresse to my line of Salmon Faverolles. I had originally intended to work with both Bresse and Faverolles as dual purpose but the cockerels I grew out this year had other ideas and none of them made the cut for breeding forward. But before I put all in to my Faverolles (bc that kind of breeding is highly labor intensive!) I would love to hear others opinions on Faverolles meat in general. What you liked? What you didn't like? Etc

Ps- photo is of recent hatches from my birds

 

[Altairsky]

I don't know how the faverolle is in US, but here in Italy we have both bantam faverolles and large fowl faverolles. LF faverolles are big, roosters weight up to 4 kg. Even bantams have a nice round breast compared to other breeds of the same size.

 

[KtheChickenGal]

Salmon Faverolles are listed as a dual purpose breed and when first created were a very popular meat bird in France. Now a days, especially hatchery lines, are little more than glorified egg layer with no real meat to them at all. I am wanting to know if anyone has actually bred their line back to a true dual purpose breed? Is anyone harvesting them for meat? (Even if it's a color other then salmon) what is the meat like? Ratio of white to dark meat? I personally have a line from a private breeder that had been working with them for many years and used her line for meat. At least the extra cockerels. I would like to further refine what she started (I want faster growth rate, earlier processing ages, and more fleshing on them earlier then what I am seeing with my own birds from her). I personally would like to apply everything that Mandelynn Royale has done with her line of American Bresse to my line of Salmon Faverolles. I had originally intended to work with both Bresse and Faverolles as dual purpose but the cockerels I grew out this year had other ideas and none of them made the cut for breeding forward. But before I put all in to my Faverolles (bc that kind of breeding is highly labor intensive!) I would love to hear others opinions on Faverolles meat in general. What you liked? What you didn't like? Etc

Ps- photo is of recent hatches from my birds

I had them as pets and egg layers. They are the sweetest, goofiest birds with so much personality!! Solid egg layers, too. I wouldn't have the heart to use them for meat.

 

[RememberTheWay]

I had them as pets and egg layers. They are the sweetest, goofiest birds with so much personality!! Solid egg layers, too. I wouldn't have the heart to use them for meat.

I love my Faverolles dearly but I am also a very serious breeder. Which means I have lots of extra males each month. And I'm farming as a livelihood so I have to incorporate ways to generate revenue and minimize my losses.

 

[RememberTheWay]

I don't know how the faverolle is in US, but here in Italy we have both bantam faverolles and large fowl faverolles. LF faverolles are big, roosters weight up to 4 kg. Even bantams have a nice round breast compared to other breeds of the same size.

We have both here too. LF is more common though. And yes, after they fully mature they are quite large birds, but when we are considering growing out birds for meat specifically, waiting a year or two for a bird to fill out simply cost too much and ruins the meat tenderness. I need to select my line to focus on fleshing early on instead of bone growth bc they can't do both at the same time. Most lines here have boney light weight females when you actually put your hands on them. They are mostly feathers and only appear big. Males do get the nice weights but not by 16 wks or any time close to that. I will be tracking several growth points from my hatches and making selections later one based on those data points. It's a lot of work to restore a dual purpose line which is why most do not ever do it. They like to call birds dual purpose but the truth is they are just layers that take a long time to get mass.